On her second visit to the Isle of Wight since taking up office in May, Police and Crime Commissioner, Donna Jones, heard how prison officers feel that they are not being treated fairly when they are the victim of an assault in the line of their work.
Ministry of Justice data shows there were 7,479 assaults on prison staff nationally in the 12 months to March 2021.
Commissioner Jones said:
“Attacks on prison staff are totally unacceptable. As the Police and Crime Commissioner for the Isle of Wight it is my responsibility to ensure crimes committed against prison staff are dealt with correctly.
“Staff have advised me of lenient sentences being handed out and on a concurrent rather than consecutive basis and cases being NFA’d by the CPS, with advice that the prison should deal with the issue internally. Victims come in all forms and offences against a prison officer must be sentenced fairly, as they would be if it were a member of the public.”
During her visit, the Commissioner met with Governor Dougie Graham, had a tour of the prison estate, and learned about the challenges the staff at the prison have been facing and the impact the pandemic has had.
The prison was originally 3 prisons, Parkhurst, Albany, and Camp Hill before merging and later the closure of the Camphill site. Camphill was a low-security prison but the others were both high-security prisons holding category B sex Offenders, and HMP Isle Wight remains a high-security prison across both remaining sites holding around 1,000 prisoners.
The Police and Crime Commissioner provides a Restorative Justice Service that any victim of crime can access to gain answers to their questions and help recovery. In recognition of the issues in prisons, the service is currently additionally grant-funded to provide a bespoke course to deal with prisoner on prisoner and prisoner on staff threats and assaults within HMP Isle of Wight and HMP Winchester.
HMP Isle of Wight has volunteered to be involved in this RJ initiative to help support and reduce levels of violence within the prisoner population. Joint meetings have taken place and there are currently three violent prisoners on the scheme. This will be reviewed in September with a view to expanding the initiative to the wider prison population.
The aims of the course are:
- Tackle and reduce violent crime and create a safer environment for both prison staff and prisoners within HMP Winchester and the HMP Isle of Wight.
- Provide continuing support and opportunity for victims to engage in a restorative processes.
- Manage offenders and hold them to account providing them with an opportunity to understand the impact of their actions and prevent re-offending.
In this far left, snowflake nation we now live in, lowlife have rights but hard working citizens have little or no rights.
Its my understanding most that are enjoying their stay in prison on the island are not satisfied attacking children, they are now attacking their keeper’s..
Fair play, friend. A very good comment. I want to know why Donna Jones is hardly ever photographed in uniform. Does she actually have one. I’m not so that as to not realise one doesn’t have to be a serving police officer to be a ‘crime commissioner’ (by the way, that means someone who pays for the instigation of wrongdoing – commissioning crimes), but if she is a civvy it all smacks of the privatisation of the Peelers like what they got in those United States. Works well there, don’t it?
The regulars now refer it to ‘going on holiday’ when they get sent down.
Where do you get this information from ???? , You do not know any facts and you are just peddling fake news, complete and utter bs. ( And out of curiosity, how and why do you know so many regular sex offenders)…..?
there would be much fewer assaults if the pervs in albany were kept locked up 23 hours a day and then only allowed out for one hour and in a rota system, throughout the day and night.
if the pervs protest or cause issues, let them wreck themselves in their cells and just leave them there -it is what they deserve.
the nonces are beyond redemption and as such deserve the same amount of compassion and care that they showed to their child victims.
100% of inmates at Albany and parkhurst (apart from a few local lags on remand who are kept separated) are sex offenders,and speaking from experience would not say boo to a goose,the iw screws have it pretty easy,as long as they can manage to overcome there natural instincts in spending time with the monsters and beasts whom the officers know what they have done on the outside.
However,hmp Winchester is a complete opposite,the screws in there work for every penny of there wages,it is hell on earth,and the vast majority of them are very decent and good at there job amongst extream provercation. Winch is our local prison and anybody who is under the illusion that it is a holiday camp don’t know f’all.